Mystery Science Theater 3000

In our recent podcast about Mystery Science Theater 3000 part of the discussion touched on whether or not the humour of MST3K could be considered mean spirited. I think that in reality the series is extremely warm, and displays more affection for the films it features than any nastiness but it’s a tricky balance. When does riffing on bad films or making fun of a terrible cast become more tiresome and irritating than the film itself? Where is the tipping point between affectionate mockery and personal abuse? And isn’t there something distasteful and parasitical about building a career on the creative efforts of others? These questions have arisen throughout the history of this niche “bad film mockery” genre, and it’s worth looking at one of the key practitioners in more detail.

As mentioned in the podcast, one of the earliest progenitors of this kind of approach to cinema is Michael and Harry Medved’s 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards which established a pantheon of bad films, and this led to Channel 4 commissioning a season called The Worst of Hollywood which was broadcast towards the end of 1983. As a kind of amuse-bouche in advance of the season Channel 4 repeated Clive James at the Movies, presumably to get viewers used to the kind of movies that Medved would cover in a few weeks time. It was also something of a trial run for James’ later series Clive James on Television, where he would mock TV from all over the world, and which ran for 24 years with various hosts.

The format of The Worst of Hollywood was pretty basic. Medved would do an introduction to camera sitting at a desk surrounded by film canisters, and then during the film various mocking captions would appear, most memorably in They Saved Hitler’s Brain when one drew attention to an intermittent fault which “would be the most entertaining thing for the next ten minutes”. After the film, Medved would sum up in his trademark style and bid the viewer farewell with the catchphrase “remember, the worst is yet to come.”

For the record the films featured in The Worst of Hollywood were:

1. Plan 9 from Outer Space (22/10/1983)

2. The Creeping Terror (29/10/1983)*

3. The Wild Women of Wongo (05/11/1983)

4. They Saved Hitler’s Brain (12/11/1983)

5. Mars Needs Women (19/11/1983)

6. Godzilla vs the Smog Monster (26/11/1983)

7. The Thing with Two Heads (03/12/1983)

8. Eegah! (10/12/1983)*

9. Robot Monster (17/12/1983)*

10. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (24/12/1983)*

The ones marked with an asterisk were later covered by MST3K.

The press coverage of The Worst of Hollywood started off with a kind of amused tolerance, and the Guardian TV reviewer Nancy Banks Smith described it as “a season of terrible old films teased to death.” As the season went on the critics lost their patience. Tony Pratt, editor of the Daily Mirror television guide, developed a massive aversion to Medved stating that “the worst thing about this series is the appalling presenter,” and when the series ended said “thankfully the last of the series which began as a very small joke and soon became an awful bore”. At greater length, the Observer television critic Peter Conrad defended the films, and concluded that “the movies deserve better than the pseudo-scholarly camp of Medved’s patter.”

The Worst of Hollywood did not return for a second season, but Medved continued to plough that particular furrow writing several more books about bad movies. He was also a mainstream film critic beyond the snark, had a mildly bewildering broadcasting career which included guest hosting unappealing “shock jock” Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, and was involved in an array of public controversies as he drifted hapzardly towards the political right.

There may have been no more of The Worst of Hollywood, but Channel 4 continued to broadcast an outstanding range of films in those early years. You could watch Marat/Sade on a Saturday night, and Tarkovsky’s Solaris on a Sunday afternoon. David Robinson, film critic of The Times, curated a cinema season so controversial - Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and Sebastiane in particular - that it directly led to the channel implementing the infamous Red Triangle on-screen warning of explicit content. This ensured that the opening film of the season - Themroc - drew an audience of randy teenagers lured by the promise of sexy Red Triangle action. What they made of the deeply unerotic sight of Michel Piccoli mumbling in the middle of a demolished house is anyone’s guess.

One last thing. As I was writing this week’s blog, the death of Joe Don Baker was announced. He was an excellent actor, and particularly brilliant as Darius Jedburgh in Edge of Darkness which we covered in the podcast only a couple of episodes ago. Baker famously took exception to the snark sent his way by the MST3K crew for his performance in Mitchell, but as I watch the glowing tributes to him roll in online, there’s no sense that his reputation was diminished by a few jokes, and if anything he ended up being loved even more. RIP.

Sources in chronological order:

Nancy Banks-Smith, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Guardian, 24 Oct 1983, p.16

Peter Conrad, Plundering Hollywood’s Graveyard, The Observer, 30 Oct 1983, p.48

Tony Pratt, Britain's Brightest Viewing Guide, Daily Mirror, 12 Nov 1983, p.16

Tony Pratt, Christmas Eve TV, Daily Mirror, 24 Dec 1983, p.19